water in footwell, leak I can't find

[sipman]

Hi, Spring is here in the Northeast and I'm getting lots of rain. Last week I had about a gallon of water in the passenger footwell. I pulled the seat, lifted the carpet and did my best to get it dry. Took about a week.

In the mean time, I pulled the door card and sure enough the vapor barrier was not attached at the bottom. I couldn't find my butyl tape, so I used 3M trim adhesive to reattach it and I felt like i did a decent job.

But today it rained and there's water in the footwell again! I pulled the windshield cowl and cleaned in there as well as ran water. All drains are working. I did get butyl tape, which I used to seal the water diverter from the fresh air intake. Not sure if this is where the leak is coming from but figured I'd try.

My driveway angles downwards. Both water events seem to occur when it's parked nose down. But why? It never mattered which way I parked previously, and now it might? Does that give anyone any thoughts on what it may be? It's entirely possible that the vapor barrier didn't stay with my liquid adhesive solution, so I'll be checking that this evening but I'm hoping for any other ideas.

[Clearancediver]

Check the door trim seal around the door opening… Google this adding keyword leaks

[Steeler]

Check this thread from a few years back.

Hope you find the leak. Frustrating.
https://www.zpost.com/forums/showthr...1090014&page=2

[sipman]

Pulled the door card and my original repair is totally fine. Poured a quart of water between the outside and inside skins of the door and it's all flooding out the many holes in the bottom of the door.
Looks like it's not the door.

I removed the cowl today and poured water down there. That's not it, but in the link Steeler posted is another link to someone with an A/C drain line that came off and was leaking in the car. That's where my heads at now. Gonna study that one and see how to check it.

[jwolf]

I had a crazy leak once. I was convinced it was NOT the vapor barrier but it was. The weird thing was the path the water took. I sat in the car on a rainy night once to track it. The water would run down the bottom of the door card and then, this is the crazy part, run under the door sill plastic. It would actually go under the carpet. So you would think it could not be the door card or parts from above, since the top of the carpet was dry. It would eventually all get wet, but from the bottom up. One side note. I replaced the rubber door trim while chasing this. That trim also channels water internally. Water can enter INSIDE the trim up near the top cowling. It exits at the sill. If this rubber trim is crushed water could exit on the front side of the door and leak that way. Hope this helps.

[sipman]

Thanks JWolf. there's a 100% chance of rain tomorrow, and a 4 hour drive ahead of me. I'm convinced it's the A/C, so I'm going to do an old trick a plumber taught me. Put a piece of paper below the thing I think could leak. Any leaks will change the color of the paper. So I'm going to put paper in the foot well and monitor it over my drive and see if any water is dripping onto it on acceleration or hard turns.
I think this indicates the A/C drain would be clogged. If it drips onto it in a pretty steady fashion, that may indicate the drain hose is disconnected.

But after your suggestion, I'm going to sandwich some paper under the door sill right now and see if it becomes wet during my travels. Fingers crossed one of these things gets wet!

[sipman]

4 hours driving in the rain and no drips. I thought I had the problem solved. So I parked it facing down and it's raining all day today, and water is pooling in the floor again. But it seems to be climbing over the door sill at the front bend, then running down the plastic trim piece for the speaker. I'm hoping it's still raining tonight and I'm going to pull the door card off and see what's going on. The membrane is totally sealed at the bottom, but perhaps water is getting in at the top of the membrane somehow and then finding it's way to the lower front of the card.

[maupineda]

Sure it will be your membrane. Change and put proper butyl.

[sipman]

Look at this beautiful drip of water! Never have I been so happy to see a water leak. Everyone who said membrane was right! the butytl feels super tight there, but clearly there's enough of something, a gap or a tear, for water to go through.

[jwolf]

Mine was the same. Clean off the old butyl rubber and use new. Use Gorilla tape to close off any other areas around the wiring coming through the foam. The rubber window trim allows more and more water to fall into the door after 20 years of age.